T2 Driver Rankings

Last week, I did a late ranking of the S2 drivers, so this week I figured I’d do a late ranking of the T2 drivers. Two races are already in the bag, but I will be doing these rankings off of last Monday’s update to create the illusion of making predictions before the season is 1/7th the way over. So, here we go!

#1: Charlotte Bowey – Not a huge surprise, since I had already predicted her to win the T2 championship, but naturally I’ll talk about it more here. Bowey is #1 in both TPE and adjusted attributes. While neither of those are the end all and be all, it does kind of make her the standard.

#2: Robert Phelps – Now is where the build starts to come in to play. Phelps is #4 in adjusted attributes, but he has done arguably the best job of adapting his build to the new tier, putting points into the new kinds of tracks. Phelps joined right before the first race of S1, but has done an amazing job of catching up.

#3: Kevin Keselowski – Yeah, homer pick. Keselowski is 6th in adjusted attributes, but he overachieved last season as well. As with Phelps, Keselowski has invested heavily into the new tracks, but has famously put the rest into his car as opposed to driving ability. Honestly, given that 2 races are over and Keselowski has won both in dominant fashion, I want to rank him higher, but I will resist.

#4: Danny Vandoorne – As with last season, there is a great deal of similarity between both the builds and earning rates of Keselowski and Vandoorne, as both have spent the exact same amount of TPE, but Vandoorne has concentrated in fewer attributes, resulting in a slightly lower gain in attributes.

#5: Alex Light – While Light initially built more into the driver, he has transitioned heavily into improving his ride, and now has put more TPE into his car than any other driver. Unfortunately, that focus has come at the expense of track knowledge, which is why I moved him down despite him technically having a small lead over Keselowski and Vandoorne.

#6: Jack Stevens – Despite being the clear #2 in TPE and adjusted attributes, Stevens has far and away invested the most into driving ability of anyone in T2 (the next closest 30 attribute points behind), which just doesn’t seem to pay off as well. However, there are plenty of TPE opportunities remaining, giving him plenty of time to round out the car.

#7: Dave Lake – Lake is 3rd in adjusted attributes, but 7th in spent TPE, which shows a lot of how important efficient spending. I am pretty neutral on Lake’s build, which makes sense given how spread out it is, but I am counting on him falling down the attribute rankings as the season goes on, which is my I ranked him lower.

#8: Luis Cabrera-Perez – It’s worth noting that there appears to be a clear separation between the top 7 and the next three. Naturally, despite it being close, I am going to go with my fellow zero-aggression driver to lead this pack.

#9: This one was very close, but in a toss-up between two drivers, only one of them was Kurt Gunnabee. #77 was devastatingly consistent last year, and in a tier where a certain level of consistency is guaranteed, it’s hard to predict what affect that will have. I am hesitant to bet against him though.

#10: Cody Ghostspeed – If Ghostspeed had been a bit more car or track and a bit less driver, I’d have him ahead of Gunnabee, as the two are basically neck and neck, but I had to go with Kurt.

Obviously I’d put myself #1 at this point. In two weeks when I come back to rank T2, I will likely have come back down to earth, but I’ve got a sizable lead built up. Also, anyone who didn’t buy down gap prior to today’s update is gonna be at a huge disadvantage. It basically meant an extra 25 points of attribute upgrades to me, would be more for the more spread out drivers.